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The MMAAP Foundation Expands Support to Fund International Skin Disease Research

New York, NY – As part of its mission to bring together leading research and medical talent and institutions from the US and Asia, the Milstein Medical Asian American Partnership Foundation (MMAAP Foundation) today announced that it has made its 2013/2014 Fellowship and Project Awards in Skin Disease.

This year’s Fellowship Award sponsors Meng Pan, MD, PhD, of Ruijin Hospital at Shanghai Jiaotong University, for a project entitled "Anti-Desmoglein B Cell Clones in Pemphigus Patients in Remission After Anti-CD20 Therapy." The visiting Fellow will be trained in Dr. John Stanley’s laboratory in the Department of Dermatology at University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

The Translational Research Project Award was given to Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University in Xi'an, with principal investigator Gang Wang, MD, PhD, for a project entitled "Molecular Diagnostics of Heritable Skin Diseases: A China – US Collaboration." Jefferson Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University will act as the partner institution for the project award. Dr. Jouni Uitto, Chair of the Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Biology at Jefferson Medical College, will serve as the US partner of the translational project.

“Skin diseases pose a serious threat to global health. With these grants, Milstein Medical Asian American Partnership Foundation will begin to address the needs of those suffering from skin diseases in China and other parts of the world," said Howard P. Milstein, Chairman of the MMAAP Foundation. "Our Foundation will continue to recognize and support excellent research projects that will not only facilitate medical exchanges between the US and Asia but also contribute to global health.”

"It is our particular pleasure to be one of the first recipients of this support. I know from my work with American Skin Association, chaired by Mr. Milstein, that he has a keen interest in helping our patients with skin disease," said Dr. John Stanley. "It is wonderful to see his interests in this area expanded to a global arena. Dr. Pan and I hope to use this collaboration as a springboard to further expand US-Chinese cooperation in this area and to build a global community of dermatologists and researchers who can exchange information and work together on improving our understanding of these severe skin diseases."

The dermatology awards are the second round of grants that the MMAAP Foundation has awarded thus far. The Foundation announced its inaugural Fellowship and Translational Project Awards in Geriatrics under the Irma and Paul Milstein Program for Senior Health in February 2013. Applications for the next round of awards, in the areas of Geriatrics, Dermatology and Hematology, are due on November 1, 2013, with awards expected to be announced in January 2014.

In both cases, grant applications were reviewed by a panel of Chinese experts in dermatology. The top three applications were then reviewed by a panel of experts that serve on the Medical Advisory Committee of American Skin Association, with the finalists submitted for approval by the MMAAP Foundation.

About the Milstein Medical Asian American Partnership Foundation (MMAAP Foundation)
The mission of the Milstein Medical Asian American Partnership Foundation (MMAAP Foundation) is to improve world health by developing mutually beneficial partnerships between the US and China, as well as greater Asia. Working with some of the premier health organizations in the world, the MMAAP Foundation brings together and funds exchanges among the best research, medical talent, and institutions in the regions. This strategy is a high priority for the MMAAP Foundations’ founders, Howard P. Milstein and the Paul Milstein Family. The MMAAP Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

For more than 50 years, the Milstein family has been actively involved in health-related and medical philanthropy. The MMAAP Foundation builds upon this distinguished history in five areas: Senior Healthcare, Skin Disease and Melanoma, Reproductive Biology, Blood Research, and Translational Medicine.

The MMAAP Foundation works in close collaboration with other medical organizations supported by the Milstein family, including American Skin Association, the Milstein Melanoma Research Program at the Rockefeller University, the Howard and Georgeanna Jones Foundation for Reproductive Medicine, New York Blood Center, and the Program for Translational Chemical Biology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. For more information, please visit MMAAP Foundation’s website at www.mmaapf.org.

American Skin Association (EIN 13-3401320) is a not-for-profit organization recognized as a tax-exempt under the Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3). This website was created in collaboration with The Rockefeller University.